Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to new and useful improvements in air vehicles and/or aircraft, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for folding the flexible and/or bendable wings of an air vehicle and/or aircraft for storage.
The folding storage of air vehicles, in particular unmanned aerial vehicles, is generally known in the art. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 (Prior Art), these known methods usually involve a bendable-wing 20 design, where the wings 20A, 20B of an air vehicle 100 wrap around the fuselage 10 and slide into a storage tube (not shown) fully assembled. Such a configuration permits the aircraft to be stored in a smaller space, and allows the aircraft to launch immediately upon removal from the storage tube. However, a disadvantage of this known method is that these types of wings 20 must fold around the air vehicle 100 under a volumetric constraint, such as the volumetric constraint of a launcher tube, for example. Also, while one wing 20B is free to wrap around the air vehicle 100 an unlimited number of times, the other wing 20A can only wrap less than one complete revolution around the fuselage 10, as it typically intersects with the fuselage 10 and cannot pass through. Thus, the span of the wing 20 is limited by the tip of the wing 20A contacting the joint between the fuselage 10 and the wing 20, when the wing 20 is in the wrapped condition. Such aircrafts are known to suffer from poor flight performance due to the limitations of the wing span.
In short, there exists a need in the art for an air vehicle with an unlimited wing span that is able to be easily folded and stored. Additionally, a need exists for a storable air vehicle having bendable wings that are adapted to a strong wind tolerance, including tolerance of wind variation, direction and speed.